Huskies, Maya have a big fan in President Obama

President Barack Obama picked UConn to win its third straight national championship when he filled out an NCAA Tournament basketball bracket for ESPN with analyst Doris Burke.

Obama picked all the No. 1 seeds — UConn, Tennessee, Stanford and Baylor – to advance to the Final Four. He picked the Huskies to beat the Lady Vols in their national semifinal matchup.

“I just think that when you’ve got the top player in the game in a close matchup and somebody who’s a veteran, who’s won the tournament before, they’re not going to get as nervous,” Obama said. “They’re going to make the plays down the stretch.”

The president is a huge Maya Moore fan based not only on watching her play but on the fact that he has met her a of couple of times and was incredibly impressed with how well she carries herself.

“For my birthday I had a little all-star game here, and we had Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and just a whole slew of all-stars,” Obama said. “And Maya, because I’d gotten to know her when she came here, was on the court. She lit the guys up, and was playing hard and they were playing hard. She picked Dwyane Wade — sorry, Dwyane, but I’ve got to report on this — I mean, she picked him clean on one play. So she can hang with the best players in the world and she’s a winner.”

Obama said that despite the fact that Baylor has the game’s most dominant center in 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner, he likes UConn in the national title game because of Moore.

“I think that Maya is going to be hitting her jumper, she’s going to be making rebounds, she’s going to be making plays — I think Connecticut wins it again.”